The Key to Nothingness

In the last part of the reading of Persepolis, it truly broke my heart. Marji tells us of the "key". The key that was given to young boys promising them that if they went to war and died, they'd live an afterlife in paradise. It's enraging to know that the government would deliberately fill these young, naive boys' minds with propaganda just so that they would be willing to go to war. I honestly think that everyone should have a choice whether or not they want to go to war, instead of being tricked into it. "They come from the poor areas, you can tell... First they convince them that the afterlife is even better than Disneyland, then they put them in a trance with all their songs..." (Satrapi 101). Better than Disneyland? What kind of lies and deceptions were they feeding these poor, uneducated boys? However, in a country that is highly religious, the Iranians believed anything that the government fed them, especially if it's making them believe they'd live their afterlife in heaven. Love, M.